East Africa meets to discuss the implementation of harmonized low sulphur standards

Over 50 participants from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and the EAC Secretariat met for two days to discuss the implementation of the harmonized East Africa low sulphur standards. The workshop, organized by the Petroleum Institute for East Africa was held on 5-6 November, 2013 at the Intercontinental Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya. The workshop was supported by the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) through the United Nations Environment Programme. In his address, Rob de Jong, who is the head of the Transport Unit in UNEP congratulated the region for moving to low sulphur fuels. He outlined the benefits of low sulphur fuels and the need to move to cleaner vehicles technologies to maximize the benefits of cleaner fuels.

Participants called for better exchange of information between the member states on successful transport project. In addition, participants called for improved capturing of transport-related information by all relevant stakeholders for better planning. As the next steps, participants were informed by the EAC Secretariat that the harmonized low sulphur standards would be gazetted before the end of the year. The five East African member states would also be supported through the CCAC to enact low sulphur standards before the effective date of implementation - 1 January 2015.